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Abstract Background Based on the relatively homogeneous origin of the sheep breeds in Morocco that originate mainly from Iberia, it is highly relevant to address the question of how these very diverse sheep populations differentiated from each other. The Mountains of the High Atlas and Middle Atlas are expected to constitute North–South and West–East geographical barriers, respectively, which could have shaped the history of the differentiation of sheep breeds. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis by considering the genetic structure and the spatial distribution of five major breeds (Sardi, Timahdite, Beni Guil, Boujaad and D’man) and one minor breed (Blanche de Montagne), by analysing the mtDNA control region, using 30 individuals per breed. Results Phylogenetic and network analyses did not indicate any clear separation among the studied breeds and discriminant component principal analysis showed some overlap between them, which indicates a common genetic background. The calculated pairwise FST values and Nei’s genetic distances revealed that most breeds showed a moderate genetic differentiation. The lowest and highest degrees of differentiation were retrieved in the Beni Guil and Boujaad breeds, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that more than 95% of the genetic diversity occurs within individuals, while between- and within-population variabilities represent only 1.332% and 2.881%, respectively. Isolation-by-distance, spatial Principal Component Analysis (sPCA), and spatial AMOVA analyses evidenced clear examples of geographical structuration among the breeds, both between and within breeds. However, several enigmatic relationships remain, which suggest the occurrence of complex events leading to breed differentiation. Conclusions The approaches used here resulted in a convergent view on the hypothetic events that could have led to the progressive differentiation between the Moroccan breeds. The major split seems to be linked to the West–East barrier of the Middle Atlas, whereas the influence of the High Atlas is less obvious and incompletely resolved. The study of additional breeds that have settled near the High Atlas should clarify the relationships between the breeds of the West part of the country, in spite of their small population size.

The paper describes the rise of the apudessive preposition pàs in Lithuanian. The apudessive meaning (‘at someone’s home’) was rare in Old Lithuanian, where pàs denoted spatial proximity in competition with priẽ. The preposition pàs underwent a multi-stage evolution [behind] > [adessive] (first only directional) > [adessive] (both directional and positional) > [apudessive] (both directional and positional).

Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships within the Arabian show horse populations are of particular interest to breeders worldwide. Using the complete mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence (916 pb), this study aimed (i) to understand the genetic relationship between three populations, the Desert-Bred (DB), a subset of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain (BAH), the Straight Egyptian (EG) and the Polish bloodline (PL), and (ii) to assess the accuracy of the traditional strain classification system based on maternal lines, as stated by the Bedouin culture. To that end, we collected 211 hair samples from stud farms renowned for breeding Arabian show horses from Nejd KSA, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Morocco, UAE, and Poland. The phylogenetic and network analyses of the whole mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence highlighted a great genetic diversity among the Arabian horse populations, in which about 75% of variance was assigned to populations and 25% to strains. The discriminant analysis of principal components illustrated a relative distinction between those populations. A clear subdivision between traditional strains was found in PL, in contrast to the situation of DB and EG populations. However, several Polish horse individuals could not be traced back to the Bedouin tribes by historical documentation and were shown to differ genetically from other studied Bedouin strains, hence motivating extended investigations.

The Romanov breed was evaluated using immunological and genetic markers. The seven blood group systems were characterized with a greater accuracy than in previous works on sheep in the Russian Federation, and were compared to eight ruminant species. Unlike other breeds, Romanov sheep shows a higher frequency of HBA than HBB alleles. There are 3–4 genotypes at the transferrin locus whereas in other breeds 6–11 genotypes have been found. At the albumin locus, the majority of the identified genotypes were heterozygotes, unlike in the other breeds studied. In the prealbumin locus, the Romanov breed was the only one where all the genotypes were heterozygous. We speculate that polymorphism at two loci (BMP-15 and BMPR1B) could effect on the high ovulation rates of Romanov sheep. Based on different genetic markers, the prevalence of heterozygotes in the Romanov sheep could determine their higher viability. A cluster analysis showed the close proximity of 12 populations of the Romanov breed, as the breeding stock come from the Yaroslavl region.

In order to perform a phylogeny study of five Algerian sheep breeds, a sample of 26 animals belonging to Algerian sheep breeds was analysed. Multiple alignment of mitochondrial sequences was performed after the introduction of other highly similar mitochondrial sequences from different regions of the world. 20 different haplotypes were observed, with a nucleotide diversity of 0.60863 and a haplotype diversity of 0.932. The evolutionary history deduced from the study of genetic distances, and phylogeny based on the maximum likelihood model, showed that these five local breeds belong to the mixture of the two world haplogroups (A and B).

(1) Background: It has been recognized that the origin of fat-tailed sheep occurred within coarse wool breeds and that this character was introgressed several times into thin-tailed populations. However, no study has investigated this idea for Egyptian breeds using mtDNA analyses. (2) Methods: Using new sequences of the control region, we constructed a database of 467 sequences representing 37 breeds including fat- and thin-tailed ones with 80 Egyptian individuals belonging to six local breeds (Barki, Fallahi, Ossimi, Rahmani, Saidi, Sohagi). The phylogenetic tree obtained with the maximum likelihood method was submitted to the Newick Extra program to count the direct and indirect links between the individuals of each breed. (3) Results: Several Egyptian breeds were strongly connected to “primitive” thin-tailed breeds from Europe, indicating a clear genetic background of the “thin tail” breed type that supports the view of archeologists. In several cases, we suspected Western Asian breeds to be involved in the introgression of the fat tail character. In contrast, the Ossimi breed showed a high affinity to a fat-tailed breed of Western Asia, suggesting a direct migration and no thin tail ancestors. The Saidi is unique as our analyses revealed its strong connection with thin-tailed Sudanese breeds.

This paper is devoted to the Old Prussian phrase ʃwaiāʃmu ʃupʃei buttan ‘to his own house’ (Enchiridion, III 876). Far from being simply the result of a syntactic error, the genitive ʃupʃei ‘of oneself’ can be recognized as the reflex of an archaic syntactic pattern, the “submerged genitive”, which has left numerous traces in Baltic and other Indo-European languages (Slavic, Greek, Latin, Old High German).

It is often assumed that PIE ablaut, used as a sub-morpheme accompanying other morphemes, tends to recede over time in the history of the individual Indo-European languages. On the other hand, it has been argued by some scholars that ablaut is often productive enough to expand over categories that did not have it originally. Both positions were advocated in the literature, the former by Mańczak (1958), the latter by Kuryłowicz (1947). In this paper, dedicated to Prof. Wojciech Smoczyński, this debate is discussed and illustrated by Baltic examples

The chotts in Algeria are temporary salt lakes recognized as important wintering sites of water birds but neglected in terms of the diversity of the insects living on their banks. Around a chott in the wetland complex in the high plains near Constantine (eastern Algeria), more than half of the species of plants are annuals that dry out in summer, a situation that prompted us to sample the vegetation in spring over a period of two years. Three zones were identified based on an analysis of the vegetation and measurements of the salt content of the soils. Surveys carried out at monthly intervals over the course of a year revealed temporal and spatial variations in biodiversity and abundance of grasshoppers. The inner zone is colonized by halophilic plants and only one grasshopper species (Dericorys millierei) occurs there throughout the year. Two polyphagous species of Calliptamus, which can feed on halophilic plants migrate from adjacent areas into the inner zone in August to feed on the plants growing there. The other species of grasshoppers remain in outer zones as they are unable to feed on halophilic plants. The greatest abundance of grasshoppers from August to winter was recorded in the inner zone and in spring and early summer in the outer zones. The dependence of D. millierei on bushes of Amaranthaceae and its moderate flight ability, features of the family Dericorytidae, limit this species ability to colonize neighbouring chotts.

Aphids are either monoecious living either on trees or herbaceous plants, or heteroecious, which involves host alternating between a tree (primary host) and a herbaceous plant (secondary host). We described the temporal variations in abundance and richness of aphids in an Algerian orchard, over a 6 month period. We recorded the choice of basin colour, the relative height of traps, and monthly Barycenter of winged populations. We also recorded temporal variations in the structure of ladybird communities. Tree-living species of aphids are the last to be caught with most caught by the yellow traps, possibly because of the predominant greenness of the vegetation in April. Most were also caught by high traps. Their phenology coincides with that of the second peak of ladybirds. In contrast, the phenology of species of aphids living on herbaceous plants differs greatly, which reflects their host plant diversity. In March relatively more of these aphids were caught by the green traps, possibly because at that time the ground was not yet covered by vegetation. Early and late species of aphids are at greater risk of being attacked by ladybirds as they are also most active early and late in the season. The highest catches of the heteroecious species of aphids were recorded in the middle of the trapping period and between those of the two groups of monoecious species of aphids. The adaptive significance of the differences in the behaviour and ecology of the aphids in the three groups is discussed.

In the Low Lithuanian dialects reflexive half-participles and verbal nouns are indeclinable and display a unique ending -damos, resp. -imos. The aim of this paper is to explain the invariability of these forms, which represents a striking feature of Low Lithuanian. It is proposed that invariability in the verbal nouns in -imos derives from their neuter origin, whereas in the half-participles in -damos it results from complex processes of phonological merging. In both cases, the preservation of invariability is due to the overall difficulty of building reflexive nominal forms of the verbs.

We studied the diet of 10 species of grasshopper belonging to the family Pamphagidae over a period of 3 years at 6 localities in North Eastern Algeria. The species of plants consumed by the grasshoppers was determined by comparing slide mounted specimens of the pieces of plant epidermis in their faeces with those in a reference collection of identified plants collected from the same localities. The percentages of occurrence of the different species of plants in the faeces of the grasshoppers were not related to the abundance of the plants at the sites studied. All the grasshoppers were polyphagous but differed in the percentage of Poaceae in their diets. The diet of Tmethis and Ocneridia contained a higher percentage of Poaceae than the other species and are considered to be ambivores. The three species in the Pamphagus gr. djelfensis complex differ in their diets but all tend to avoid consuming Poaceae and are categorized as forbivores. We also compared the frequency of occurrence of Fabaceae in the faeces and in the field and O. volxemii is the only species that avoided consuming this plant family. The number of sensilla on the labrum was also studied in both sexes of each species. Once one corrects for differences in the size of the labrum, the forbivores have higher numbers of sensilla in groups A1, A2 and A3 (but not A10) than the ambivores. The numbers of sensilla in the A10 group on the labrum of species of Pamphagidae is greater than on that of species of Acrididae, which are mainly graminivores and adapted to semi-arid conditions.

L’ORIGINE DU PRÉVERBE BAS-LITUANIEN anč-RésuméQuelques dialectes bas-lituaniens présentent, à côté du préverbe usuel ant-, une variante à affriquée anč-. Būga (Rinktiniai raštai III 451) considère cette variante anč- comme héritée : à côté de la forme ant-, issue de *anta, il aurait existé en lituanien une forme anč-, issue de *anti en position antévocalique (par ex. *anti̯-akis > bas-lit. ánčakis) ; les deux formes disposeraient de correspondants dans les autres langues indo-européennes : a) lit. *anta- = got. anda- (par ex. anda-nems „agréable“), gr. αντα (chez Homère); b) lit. *anti- = gr. ἀντι, lat. ante, véd. ánti (cf. aussi hitt. ḫanti „séparément“). Le but du présent article est de discuter cette analyse et de tenter d’éclairer l’origine du préverbe anč-. Un examen précis des données dialectales montre que l’analyse traditionnelle est infondée, car elle ne permet pas de déterminer (a) quelle pourrait avoir été la distribution ancienne des deux variantes *anta et *anti, et (b) l’évolution phonétique postulée (*antj-akis > bas-lit. âncakis) contredit la „loi des affriquées“ (*-tja- > bas-lit. -te-) : d’un prototype * antļ-akis on attendrait *antekis en bas-lituanien, pas âncakis.La forme anč - paraît provenir de l’ajout au préverbe ant- d’une particule d’origine adverbiale, en l’occurrence *ant-š-. Théoriquement, on peut voir dans cette particule *-š ou bien le *-s adverbial de l’indo-européen (cf. gr. εὐθύ : εὐθύς „aussitôt“) en contexte ruki (par ex. d’après le modèle de prié : prie-š, d’où ant : *antš), ou bien une particule indo-européenne *g̑hi (cf. gr. -χι, véd. -hi) > lit. *-ž, avec assourdissement en finale > *-š (comme par ex. dans *eg̑ > *ež > v. lit. eš, lie. àš). Cette dernière possibilité permettrait de comparer le préverbe bas-lituanien anč- (< *ant-ži) et le grec ἄγχι„à côté“ (< *ἀντ-χι< *ant- g̑hi), bien que les deux formes soient probablement à interpréter comme des innovations indépendantes.

PRŪSŲ ENCHIRIDIONO LINKSNIAVIMO SISTEMA IR VERTIMO STRATEGIJASantraukaPrūsų kalbos paminkluose, ypač Enchiridione (1561), linksnių formos dėl vokiečių kalbos įtakos yra labai dažnai painiojamos, todėl linksniavimo sistemą rekonstruoti sunku. Šio straipsnio tikslas – aptarti įvairiopą vokiečių kalbos įtaką prūsų kalbos linksnių formoms ir aprašyti vadinamąsias „mišriąsias konstrukcijas“ (pvz., sen stesmu [D] wirdan [A] „su žodžiu“).

PRIESAGOS PERKĖLIMAS BALTŲ KALBOSESantraukaStraipsnyje aptariami kai kurie priesagos perkėlimo atvejai baltų kalbose. Priesagos perkėlimu vadinamas morfologinis procesas, kurio metu nauja leksema, vykstant leksinei inovacijai, perima pakeičiamo senesnio žodžio priesagą. Taip galima paaiškinti kai kuriuos iki šiol nesuprastus sufiksacijos atvejus. Ypač daug dėmesio kreipiama į lie. ruduõ, svíestas ir la. brĩvs etimologiją.

BEVARDĖS GIMINĖS ĮVARDŽIAI IR SVO TAISYKLĖ PRŪSŲ KALBOJESantraukaNagrinėjama bevardės giminės įvardžių galūnių -a ir -an distribucija prūsų III Katekizme. Iškeliama prielaida, kad galūnę -a turėjo bevardės giminės vardininkas, o galūnę -an - bevardės giminės galininkas. Vargu ar tokia distribucija, kuri prieštarauja indoeuropiečių bevardės giminės, neskiriančios vardininko ir galininko, esmei, atspindi pačios prūsų kalbos raidos etapą; ji veikiausiai rodo vertėjo polinkį žymėti galininką galūne -an, nepaisant žodžių gramatinės giminės.

DĖL BEVARDĖS GIMINĖS DAIKTAVARDŽIŲ PRŪSŲ KALBOJESantraukaIštyrus prūsų kalbos bevardės giminės daiktavardžių morfologijos ypatumus, leksinį paplitimą ir kilmę, daroma išvada, kad šie daiktavardžiai, nors dar gausūs prūsų kalbos paminkluose, sudaro ribotą daiktavardžių klasę.

Next to the major changes which occurred in the « Camargue gardoise » during sixties and seventies, and because of the becoming obsolete « Traité des Marais » which was regulating the collective management of water levels, the economic actors dealing with water concerns have been developing individualistic policies. Water has became a source of many conflicts implying serious consequences on resources and natural spaces. The achievement of an environmental chart and of a « SAGE » at the beginning of the nineties were the ground baits for a come back to a collective form of water management. However, it’s a long way to consider water as a vector of territorial construction thanks to collective agreements about projects dealing with water. In the following context, the 2002 and 2003 floods have revealed territorial limitations to manage this kind of crisis. They have shown that the water policies have to take inot more seriously the structural links between the different areas of decision and solidarity.

Growth and differentiation factor Associated Serum Protein (GASP) 1 and 2 are proteins known to be involved in the control of myostatin activity at least in vitro. Most deuterostome GASPs share a modular organization including WAP, follistatin/kazal, IGc2, two kunitz, and NTR domains. Based on an exon shuffling model, we performed independent phylogenetic analyses on these modules and assessed that papilin is probably a sister sequence to GASP with a divergence date estimated from the last common ancestor to bilateria. The final organization was acquired by the addition of the FS domain in early deuterostomes. Our study revealed that Gasp genes diverged during the first round of genome duplication in early vertebrates. By evaluating the substitution rate at different sites on the proteins, we showed a better conservation of the follistatin/kazal domain of GASP1 than GASP2 in mammals, suggesting a stronger interaction with myostatin. We also observed a progressive increase in the conservation of follistatin and kunitz domains from the ancestor of Ciona to early vertebrates. In situ hybridization performed on mouse embryos showed a weak Gasp1 expression in the formed somites at 10.5 dpc and in limb buds from embryonic E10.0 to E12.5. Similar results were obtained for zebrafish embryos. We propose a synthetic view showing possible interactions between GASP1 and myostatin and highlighting the role of the second kunitz domain in preventing myostatin proteolysis.

Following the major changes which occurred in the " Camargue gardoise " during the sixties and the seventies, and because of the outdated " Traité des Marais " which was regulating the collective management of water levels, the economic actors dealing with water concerns have been developing individualistic policies. Water has become the origin of numerous conflicts of serious consequences concerning resources and natural spaces. The implementation of an environmental chart and of a " SAGE " in the early nineties was the outset of a comeback to a collective form of water management.However, water is still a long way from being looked-upon as a vector of territorial construction thanks to collective agreements about projects dealing with water."